CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > August 2022 33 ESTA: 2 ESTA’s 2022 Autumn Meeting will be hosted by Finnish association INFRA and takes place on 13th and 14th October 2022 in Helsinki at the Scandic Grand Marina Hotel. ESTA members can reserve their rooms themselves through Scandic’s official website using the Hotel Room booking button in the events section of ESTA’s website at: https://estaeurope.eu/events/meetings/ . Meanwhile, Antti Astren has taken over from the respected Magnus Frisk, Secretary of Finnish ESTA member association INFRA, who has retired. Astren has over 30 years in the industry and has worked for INFRA for eight years. INFRA is based in Tampere and has almost 300 member companies. Book your place at ESTA’s autumn meetings in Finland Big boost for ECOL as Denmark gives formal go-ahead Denmark has confirmed that it is formally recognising the European Crane Operators Licence following a series of meetings and consultations. As a result, any ECOL-qualified crane operator will be able to obtain a Danish crane operators’ licence on production of their ECOL status without the need for any further training or testing. The news was received in a message from the Danish health and safety organisation Arbejdstilsynet (AT) to Danish training organisation EUC Lillebælt and ESTA member DI, the Confederation of Danish Industry. They in turn passed it on to the ECOL Supervisory Board. The Danish authorities also said that in future they hope to allow ECOL-qualified crane operators to work in the country without the need to obtain a Danish licence but that this will take more time as such a move might require current regulations to be amended. ECOL Supervisory Board member Klaus Meissner said: “This is very good news indeed. Standards in Denmark are very strict and carefully supervised by the authorities there, and if they are happy to support ECOL, that should help persuade other national regulatory bodies to follow suit.” He continued: “The potential for ECOL both to raise safety standards and increase efficiency right across Europe is not in question and we look forward to further developments in the near future.” ESTA’s ECOL project received a boost earlier this year when Belgium agreed to recognise the licence and positive talks are also ongoing with Germany, Spain and Ireland. ECOL has already signed two mutual recognition agreements, with the Netherlands and British Columbia in Canada. Such agreements involve ensuring that standards of the national licence and ECOL are fully aligned. ESTA is reminding its members to use transport contracts that include valid fuel clauses that can be revised on a weekly basis. Ton Klijn, ESTA’s Director, said the association has discussed the impact of the present geopolitical situation on fuel prices and the uncertainty this is causing. He added: “It is obvious that we should all use transport contracts that contain a valid fuel clause. Fuel prices should be referenced at the time of contract closure and then adapted against the fuel price index. “Previously this was usually done on a monthly basis, but ESTA is now advising members and companies to do so on a weekly basis. Failure to do this is extremely risky in current circumstances.” Various websites publish fuel prices and give guidance on adjustment factors, and the European Commission website also contains details of fuel prices in all member states at https://energy.ec.europa.eu/data-and-analysis/weekly-oil-bulletin_en?redir=1. ESTA issues urgent fuel contracts clause reminder